Foreign holding of government bonds at 25% in March

UOB said Bank Negara’s foreign reserves edged down by US$0.4bil (RM1.65bil) month-on-month (m-o-m) to US$108.6bil as of end-March (February 2021: US$0.3bil m-o-m to US$109bil). “However, foreign reserves were still higher by US$1.0bil year-to-date compared to US$107.6bil at the end of 2020, supported by sustained foreign portfolio inflows into bond markets and strong current account surplus, ” it said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign holdings of Malaysian government bonds, namely Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) and Government Investment Issue (GII), rose by RM4.4bil to RM215bil or 25% of total outstanding in March – the highest share since April 2018.

Foreign investor’s holdings of MGS rose RM1.5bil to RM184.6bil, equivalent to 40.8% of total MGS outstanding.